The winter holidays presented me with traditions about food and creating special atmospheres with lights, decorations, and music. I’ve written earlier (Traditional Foods) about how I wasn’t very ecological in food, going ahead with a tradition of biscotti that took a lot of non-renewable energy.

In the arenas of music and decorations I could more easily make choices for the planet. Music was easy. With various upgrades in technology, our music options keep improving and each year they take less energy to use and less space to store.

Decorations cleaned up a bit too. Downsizing our outside lights was welcome with no one clamoring to climb around on the roof. Since we gave up a full size Christmas tree years ago we were able to recycle yet another batch of leftover ornaments, fondly bidding goodbye to some special ones. What felt good was getting them to the thrift store early enough so other people could use them.

The inside lights got rearranged and we took the opportunity to add whales to the family’s manger scene. The animal and human figures have been glued and retouched many times over the years but the whales are new and healthy, just as we wish for them in real life. Happy New Year to all.